§ Sir G. WHELERasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he has any official information as to what steps are 2284W being taken in France, Belgium, and Holland to check the spread of foot-and-mouth disease in the flocks and herds of those countries?
Mr. GUINNESSLaws exist in France, Belgium and Holland empowering the Governments to deal with outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease on lines which are similar to our own. Disease in these countries, however, is so prevalent that eradication by slaughter of the infected animals has been abandoned for many years. Farmers are required to report the suspected existence of disease on their farms, and when it is diagnosed the movement of animals off the farms is prevented by Order. In Belgium and Holland clinically non-affected animals are moved under licence from the infected premises to abattoirs for slaughter, and their carcases consumed on the Continent or, prior to the passage of the Importation of Carcases (Prohibition) Order of 1926, in Great Britain. These contact animals are liable to be infectious though slaughtered in an early stage of the disease before lesions have developed.